


Drink To That

by Theoroark



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Drink to Forget, Egyptian woman and more qualified Latino man lose job to less qualified white man, Friendship, Gen, M/M, R76 is mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-18 12:45:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11874765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theoroark/pseuds/Theoroark
Summary: “But I mean, the amount of times I had to pull Jack back from doing some real stupid shit, and he still got made head of Overwatch and I’m his second-”“Ana. That’s why they did what they did.”She looked over at Gabe, confused, and he smiled. She very badly wanted to punch him.-After Jack gets named the head of Overwatch, Ana and Gabe go and get a drink.





	Drink To That

“Let’s get a round for the losers,” Gabe said, as he and Ana sat down in a suitably obscure Manhattan bar.

Ana rolled her eyes. “Classy. And anyway. You still get an organization to run.” Gabe raised an eyebrow and his glass, and Ana toasted him and took a long drink.

“Let’s define loser as ‘didn’t get a damn giant-ass medal today’ then,” Gabe said, setting his glass down. He looked over at Ana. “You okay?”

“You didn’t hear me tell Jack? It’s an honor.”

“Yeah, and he saw through that even with his post-coital glow. Come on. Get it out now, it’ll make you a better liar later.”

Ana thought back to how Jack’s face dropped when she broke off their handshake, and the hunch of his shoulders when he was spirited away by strange diplomats. “I don’t know.” She stared into her glass. “I mean, both of us, we were never as loud as Jack. And I was never as loud as you.” Gabe snorted and gave a begrudging nod. She felt herself growing heated again. “But I mean, the amount of times I had to pull Jack back from doing some real stupid shit, and he still got made head of Overwatch and I’m his second-”

“Ana. That’s why they did what they did.”

She looked over at him, confused, and he smiled. She very badly wanted to punch him. “Jack’s big. They’re scared. And when people are scared, they want big. He’s got big ideals, big plans, big cornfed smile- that’s the kind of stuff that’ll make people give Overwatch a chance, make them believe in it. And you know that downside of big people, that they can be big stupid sometimes?” He pointed to Ana. “You get someone who’s maybe not quite as big, but frighteningly competent- someone whose instincts and cool can make them see through anything, someone that the big guy’s afraid of. You put that person next to him, have that person make sure the big guy’s big ideas have legs to stand on, and you’re set for life.”

He watched Ana when he finished. She drank. “So my job’s to reign Jack in,” she said, when she was done.

“Yeah.”

“My job’s to be his mom.” Gabe frowned and said nothing. Ana gave a bitter laugh. “I don’t want my damn career to be a mom to full grown man, Gabe.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I get that.” They drank in silence for a bit before he spoke up again. “But Ana, hell, it doesn’t have to be. If you’re afraid of pushback- if you went toe to toe against Petras, I’d put all my money on you. And like I said,” he grinned. “Jack’s afraid of you.”

Ana snorted and finished off her beer. “You’re right,” she said. “I guess it’s just…”

“The message it sends.”

“Yeah.” Gabe nodded and raised two fingers.

“I could leave,” Ana mused, holding her new glass with two hands. “There are a lot of private security firms around now. I’d make a helluva lot more at one of those. And when I got my medal of honor, the PM straight up begged me to come back to the armed forces. Bet I could make general in no time.”

“You could,” Gabe said. “But you won’t.” She looked over at him. “You believe in this thing too much. You got that same idealism as Jack, too much of it. And you’re too loyal. So stupidly loyal, you won’t jump ship, even when I offer you the position of my co-head, where you could be doing so, so much more.”

Ana stared at him. He finished his drink in a long gulp, and looked back at her. After a moment, she dropped her gaze, and he laughed.

They drank in silence for a while after that, and Ana thought about Gabe. She knew how badly Gabe had wanted his command, and how angry he would have been if the UN had saddled him with a someone to share the job with. He had offered her the position out of what could only, and even then only hazily, be called generosity, something that he was troublingly rich with. She knew some of the people who worked with them saw Gabe’s kindnesses as genuine, a deep sense of affection and attachment to others, particularly his subordinates. Others, who had seen Gabe in interrogation, saw it as manipulation, a means to an end.

Ana simply doubted that Gabe made a meaningful distinction between the two. She could tell that, clear as day, when others had a muddied vision of Gabe, and yet here she could not tell the source of his generosity for her life. She didn’t like it. Like Gabe had said, she was used to her instincts coming through for her.

“Are you going to be okay?” she asked, changing tacts. Gabe gave her that same smile, but she wasn’t much in the mood to punch him anymore.

“Thought I had it good.”

“You do. But I know you were expecting-”

“Yeah,” he said, cutting her off. “And you know, Petras, he told me, 'this is so much more in line with your experience, Gabe,’ he went on and on about how I’d be doing so much more, have so much more freedom, but-”

He cut himself off and frowned. “But…?” Ana prompted. He said nothing. “Come on, Gabe. I had my vent sesh. Your turn.”

“He just dropped it in, at the end, sure he didn’t think anything of it- he said, 'it’s much more suited to your temperament, Gabe.’”

Ana cocked her head. “What does that mean?”

“That’s the thing, I don’t fucking know.” Gabe laughed. “But nothing I can think of is any good. 'You’re just so secretive and weaselly, Gabe?’ 'You’re just vaguely repellent to the public, Gabe?’ 'You’re just so cold-blooded and amoral, Gabe?’”

 _Ah._ Ana put her hand over his. “Or they trust you, that you don’t need the glory to do your job well and right, that you can be trusted to operate with minimal oversight.”

“Ha.”

“I trust you to do this, Gabe.”

He stared at the bar and smiled tightly. “Thanks, Ana.”

She was very aware she had failed, and very aware she didn’t know what else to do. So she lifted her glass, and she and Gabe toasted again.

“So uh,” she said, wiping at her mouth. “Are you and Jack going to be okay? I didn’t see you guys talking afterwards. You really should be spending the night with him, you know.”

Gabe choked on his drink. “I don’t know what your talking about,” he said quickly.

“Mmm,” Ana said. She took another sip. “If you’re still wondering about that temperament thing, I think you can rule out secretive.”

**Author's Note:**

> Seriously. Jack must have given Ana hella benefits for her to not have held that against him.
> 
> My tumblr is tacticalgrandma, if you want to talk to me there!
> 
> Thanks so much for reading this, and any comments or kudos would mean the world to me <3


End file.
